1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly, to a three-dimensional semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices have been developed with various structures to increase integration. This includes semiconductor devices having three-dimensional memory devices.
Memory cells of a three-dimensional memory device are connected to word lines and are stacked on a semiconductor substrate. Each of the word lines may be formed in a memory array area and extend to a contact area. Each of the word lines may be electrically connected to a switching device in the peripheral area via a contact plug and a connecting line. The switching device may control whether an operating voltage is applied to the word lines.
Connecting lines may be connected to contact plugs formed in the contact area and extend toward the peripheral area where the switching devices are. As the number of stacked word lines in the third-dimensional memory device increases, the number of connecting lines connected to the word lines may increase. The connecting lines are formed in a memory block, which is limited in size. Due to its limited size, it is difficult keep increasing the number of connecting lines in the memory block. In order to solve this problem, there is a method of increasing the number of conductive layers for the connecting lines. Unfortunately, this requires an increased number of mask processes for forming the connecting lines, which increases manufacturing costs.